Bertha Mullins works for one of the biggest banks in Nevada, but nothing about her surroundings is intimidating.

In fact, she likes being tucked into a small strip mall in northeast Reno where, at street level, the Wells Fargo Community Outreach Center helps people learn the basics of banking and personal finance.

"I like to meet with people in an unintimidating way," Mullins said this week, as she helped put on an annual Black History Month luncheon at the outreach center's tiny offices.

More than anything else, Mullins' African-American roots -- tethered to a "loving" upbringing during a discrimination-filled era in Reno history -- forged the future community activist.

Luther and Sadie Mack came to Nevada shortly after her birth in Mississippi and faced racial challenges in post-war Reno.

"But they never let those adversities make them bitter," Mullins said. "They didn't teach hate.

"They walked the walk and talked the talk. We had a loving home environment."

And they pushed the virtues of diversity, she said, even as they taught Mullins and brothers Ernest and Luther Jr., who has gone on to own numerous McDonald's restaurants in Reno and Sparks, never to forget their ethnicity.

And it's at this time of year that Mullins remembers who she calls "unsung" heroes, those of her parents' generation and before who fought for equalities that she and others enjoy today and sometimes take for granted.

But she always comes back to her parents and their insistence on helping others, a trait that's rubbed off on their daughter.

"I'm passionate about people," Mullins said about those who take the first tentative steps into the community outreach offices on Sutro Street to learn the basics -- how to write a check, tap into a computer, apply for a loan.

The returns, she said, are rich.

"We know many who started out with nothing, but have now bought their first car," Mullins said. "Sometimes you take it for granted. They don't. They share that.

"Sometimes you meet them in the grocery store, and they say, 'Hello, Mrs. Wells Fargo!

"It's a people job, and we have an opportunity to provide education. That's very rewarding."